The trailer for “Song Sung Blue,” director Craig Brewer’s Oscar-nominated biographical drama about a Neil Diamond tribute act, sets up a familiar arc. While looking for glory, musicians Mike and Claire — played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson — find each other. And when the glory arrives, so do the struggles: alcoholism, addiction and, notably, living with a disability. Midway through the story, Claire loses a leg after being hit by a car. She spends the rest of the film as an amputee. But with her partner, performing Diamond’s sparkling soft pop, like “Sweet Caroline” and the cozy title song, helps her emerge stronger on the other side — so goes the story. It’s a common theme in major Hollywood productions, said film journalist Kristen Lopez. “The movie was not advertised as being a disabled narrative,” Lopez said. “Oscar voters see this as an inspirational narrative, not an inspirational disabled narrative, which is stereotypical, because that is often the only narrative disabled people get.” The inspiration, Lopez said, comes from how Claire endures her disability, and how Hudson — a non-disabled actress wearing a wig and portraying a lower middle-class character — has her glamour stripped away. “[There’s] this emphasis that a disabled narrative can only be about tragedy, can only be about overcoming something, as opposed to a narrative where a disabled person just exists and tells a story,” Lopez said. “That’s really what a lot of people in the disabled community want. We just want to be part of storytelling.” Hudson received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance. She shares the category with fellow nominees Jessie Buckley, Renate Reinsve, Emma Stone and Rose Byrne (whose film “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” also touches on disability through a very different lens). The Oscars telecast airs this Sunday, March 15. Lopez said Hudson’s nomination is the latest occurrence of what’s been called “cripping up,” a term she defines as “able-bodied actors playing disabled people.” As Lopez writes in her 2025 book, “Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies,” it’s often a means to Oscar glory. “An actor plays someone with cognitive or physical disabilities, emphasizes how much extensive research they did on their press tour and, if they play the disability card just right, wins an Oscar,” she wrote. “This isn’t a foolproof method, by any stretch, but it can be a quick way to get on the ballot.” Cripping up is not novel, Lopez noted in the book, but cripping up as a means toward prestige dates back only a few decades. She offers the examples of Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump” and Dustin Hoffman in “Rain Man.” The scales can be balanced by casting disabled actors to play disabled characters and hiring disabled writers to tell disabled stories. The latter is part of the work David Radcliff does. As the co-chair of the Writers Guild of America’s Disability Writers Committee, he fields requests from creatives in the television and film industry looking for perspective on disability storylines and characters. Ideally, a disabled writer will take on a gig writing for a project with a disability narrative. But, Radcliff explained, that’s not always the case. “We try to guide conversations to a place where non-disabled people, who are usually the ones that are in positions of authority, feel more comfortable talking about or exploring disability-related stories,” Radcliff, a former staff writer for ABC’s “The Rookie,” said. “The choices that we make about who has authority in a scene or has agency in a scene can have ripple effects in real life.” In many cases, non-disabled actors are drawn to the roles of disabled characters because they can express “agony and loneliness and pain,” Radcliff said, since those emotions are written into the narrative. (L to R) Hugh Jackman as Mike Sardina and Kate Hudson as Claire Stengl in director Craig Brewer’s SONG SUNG BLUE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved. Actor and disability activist Nicole Cyrille has another term for it: “inspiration porn.” “We don’t usually get to see the reality, which is disabled people live normal everyday lives,” Cyrille, who does live audio descriptions for “Grey’s Anatomy,” said. “The perception to the world is that we live this unbearable struggle, and if you can find a disabled person with a smile, that’s such an inspirational moment.” Exclusion is not unique to disability narratives. The vast majority of stories are still overwhelmingly white and male, as are Oscar voters, according to filmmaker Amy Adrion, an assistant professor of film and animation at Rochester Institute of Technology. “There’s a huge history of cinema where women, nonbinary directors, queer directors and racially diverse directors have had an impact on the art form,” she said. “We all try to do a little bit more due diligence and research in the examples that we show students. It’s not to say ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Citizen Kane’ are not amazing films that are worth teaching, but so is ‘Jeanne Dielman’ by Chantal Akerman or ‘Harlan County, USA’ by Barbara Kopple.” Adrion pointed to the historic achievements at play in the 2026 Oscar nominations, which do merit celebration, she said. Ryan Coogler’s vampire-blues picture “Sinners” became the most-nominated film in history, racking up 16. The costume designer, Ruth E. Carter, has become the most-nominated Black woman in the history of the Academy Awards. And cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw is only the fourth woman ever to receive a nomination in that category. These are big gains, though the filter through which other films with diverse perspectives can get made is narrow, Adrion said. “It’s not to say that the films that were nominated for Oscars this year are not very deserving,” she said, “but there are so many stories that are never funded, never told, never distributed to the degree that they should be, and that’s just a loss.”  It gets trickier when considering the real-life inspiration for many narratives. Director Craig Brewer adapted “Song Sung Blue” from a documentary about a real couple, which lends the film a sheen of authenticity that may insulate it from such criticism, Lopez said. “Have a problem with this abled actor playing a disabled character? They were selected by the real person, or the real person gave their blessing,” Lopez wrote in her book. “Don’t like a narrative tweak to the story? It’s not a documentary. Plus, the actor did a ton of research and work to get the performance just right.” If the actor discusses that preparation with the press, though, it’s almost always with a journalist who can’t follow up with questions informed by lived experience, she added. That adds another layer to the ongoing conversation around disability in film and, specifically, who gets to lead it. (L to R) Hugh Jackman as Mike Sardina and Kate Hudson as Claire Stengl in director Craig Brewer’s SONG SUNG BLUE, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2025 All Rights Reserved. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2025 All Rights Reserved. “I’m one of the few physically disabled entertainment journalists out there, and I wasn’t going to get the opportunity to talk to Kate Hudson and have an honest conversation about what she learned from playing a disabled character and how does she respond to criticism,” Lopez said. “No one’s asked those questions because most of the journalistic pool is able.” Radcliff, who said he enjoyed “Song Sung Blue” overall, believes that who tells the stories — beyond the filmmaking and all the way to the red carpets of premieres and awards shows, too — is just as important as the stories that get told. “I got into the entertainment industry because I do believe that the stories we tell can make a really positive difference,” he said, “and if we believe that to be true, then we also have to believe that they can make a negative difference as well.” The post The Oscars love disability stories, but it’s complicated appeared first on CITY Magazine. 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